'Big Red Best We'll Face'---Valpey

Cornell is the best football team Harvard will face in the Stadium all fall. It has depth, experience, and tremendous team speed, speed great enough to cause Art Valpey to rate it one of the four fastest teams in the country. And Coach George "Lefty" James never had it so good.

The Big Red has lost but three first stringers from its 1948 two platoon system: Joe Quinn, offensive right guard, John Rogers, offensive right end, and Bob Dean, second string fullback and the team's best punter. The entire defensive platoon is back to a man, and if the word out of Ithaca may be considered Gospel, three excellent replacements have turned up for Quinn, Rogers, and Dean.

The Cornell squad is so deep in capable football players for all positions that the two platoon system has been brought to its ultimate in development. The offensive and defensive groups practice separately.

Thursday Get-Togethers

Only on Thursday do the two sets of football players switch over and see how the other half lives, and this is but a precautionary measure, in case the first two strings in one position should get injured and a man from the other platoon must be brought up to fill the gap.

Because of his two platoon system, James will bring 42 players on the trip to Cambridge, or just shy of four full teams.

Only one man is expected to see both offensive and defensive service against the Crimson. Because of an early season injury to offensive regular Harry Cassel, Harvey Sampson will serve full time at the left end position.

Speed Prevails Over Bulk

But Cornell's greatest weapon is its speed. Right halfback Frank Miller spends his Springs running the 100 and the 220 yard dashes for the track team, and the other members of the backfield could probably do the same given the inclination.

The line is not particularly huge, with the top lineman weighing but 225, and the second but 215. The Big Red instead has a fast line and especially a fast offensive line to go with their greyhound backs.

A brief look at the season totals for 1948 shows the worth of Lefty James' high speed football, and it is good to note that the team which compiled these records is virtually the same team Harvard plays in the Stadium this afternoon.

Has Fine Offensive Record

Cornell backs carried the ball on the ground 492 times and gained a net 2296 yards, or an average 4.6 yards per try. Opponents averaged but 2.8. This remarkable record was compiled against such teams as Army, Navy, Dartmouth, and Pennsylvania.

The answer lies primarily in team speed. Cornell seldom lost much because the backfield speed usually got the ball back to the line of scrimmage even if there was no opening at that point.

Another department where speed shows is in punt runbacks. The average Cornell runback was nearly 17 yards, the opposition's average a pawky 12. It takes fast linemen to get down and make the blocks and fast halfbacks to carry the ball for a team to compile an average of just under 17 yards per return.

A good football team becomes great only by playing opponents which force it to exploit all its resources. Cornell's schedule shows no very tough games, except perhaps against Pennsylvania, now that both Army and Navy are off the list, which leaves the team in the tragic position of being merely very good instead of great.

But it will still be nothing short of cosmic if Harvard upsets the Big Red. The Reliable Jersey House would be very, very surprised.